PROTECTING THE AIR WE BREATHE
Earth Day Network president says Thailand can lead the region in environmental conservation
When the president of Earth Day Network Kathleen Rogers talks about environmental protection, she speaks with an impassioned plea. She tries to instil in listeners a desire to play an effective role in addressing environmental issues, weighing heavily on the physical and emotional well-being of society.
During a recent trip to Thailand to share her concerns about protecting the environment, Rogers, who founded Earth Day Network’s groundbreaking Billion Acts Of Green programme, spoke candidly about the need for lawmakers to work closely with major stakeholders in bringing about a tangible solution.
As head of Earth Day Network, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this month, Rogers, a straight-talking executive, said she has been coming to Thailand to build awareness.
There are 190-plus countries, and not all of them share the same responsibilities when it comes to protecting the environment, nor do all of them have the same air quality or plastics issues.
She says the United States bears a huge responsibility for what is going on globally because America has money, is a developed country, and that it has taken “advantage of other countries to build its own country economy”.
“I don’t think there are very many people that would deny that. When I travel to Asia we all know the situation, it’s not across the board, but there’s enormous plastic pollution coming out of six or seven countries. That’s something that leadership can solve.
“There is a huge amount of pollution from burning crops and from burning coal. That again is up to the leaders of the countries to deal with those issues. But not alone, let’s take burning of crops, in many countries the political powers are extremely beholden to the vote of farmers, they’re a critical part of the economy. So they don’t want to take these farmers head on. They are not in the position, they feel, to do so because they want to stay in power.”
Forcing farmers to give up practices that have worked for them for thousands of years is not an easy course to take in most circumstances.
“In many other developed countries, over time and with the right incentives, the farmers have stopped doing that [burning crops] and have started using different agricultural methodologies in order to get the same benefits that they get from burning crops,” said the American, who has worked for over two decades as an environmental attorney and advocate.
“It is not the fault of the farmers necessarily, it’s not the fault of the people of any particular country … it’s the leadership. They do not have the guts or equity to understand that the health of the people, and especially the health impact on children, there is nothing more vulnerable than the developing lungs and brains of a child. Both of which are dramatically affected by air quality. There is really no excuse, it is not like there aren’t mechanisms for reducing air pollution.”
On burning coal, her stance was no different.
“Many countries are still building coal-fired power plants. Japan recently announced they would be building as many as 22 new coal-burning power plants because of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
“While I understand their fear, they’re out of their minds because they are building expensive power plants that soon will be obsolete and the world cannot put up with burning coal anymore.
“All of these practices are antiquated technologies that would require support from wealthy countries. We require innovation education, so our students can become the inventors of tomorrow.”
On that note, she remarked about the enthusiasm she saw in Thai youths when it came to becoming part of the solution to the current environmental crisis during visits with chemical and mechanical engineering students.
“They were super anxious to be part of this new economy,” she said, “because it’s not just that they want to do something that is socially good, they also want to make money.
“The people that come up with a substitute for plastics will be the richest people on Earth, people who come up with ways to store energy in a battery, will own the world.”
With America controlling, and for the most part monopolising, the bulk of new technology and innovations,
“the same thing is going to happen with green energy, if the rest of the world isn’t careful”, she said.
Development is not enough, Rogers said. The time has come for countries to invest in their students who are anxious to be a part of the solution, otherwise countries like the US will end up owning the means of production.
“The US and China are investing a lot of money, countries that have money are not investing in how to bring you into full development. They are investing in ways that they can own the economy as it starts to develop.
“Why are they only in the US, when they can be in Thailand?”
Rogers said Thailand has what it takes to lead the way in developing solar panels and air quality, and does not need outside support.
“You are coming up with inventions, I am reading about this every day in Thailand. We need to bring in the market, not let the big companies buy them from you, and own them ourselves and bring them to market and start selling them to the rest of the world.
“That is how Thailand can develop efficiently, that is how they can save their kids, that is how they can create from a geopolitical position much more power and equitable power in this region.” Rogers said she is a firm believer Thailand has all of the elements, “the brains, resources, the interest and imagination, among their children and young adults, and even the government, to pull this off”.
“However, what is needed is courage, which is often in short supply in the world right now”.
There is a huge amount of pollution from burning crops and from burning coal